The New School!

The New School-


The new school is opening next year and many of you have expressed a desire to give you opinions on everything from classroom selection to types of desks that the building will have. Take some time to give us your opinions here:

Time Toast - A Great Timeline Tool!

Time Toast is a great new tool that you might want to check out!

www.timetoast.com


This site allows you to make timelines to show in the classroom. It is interactive and fun for students and very easy to make for you! If interested in this site please stop by and see me and I can show you how to use it and I also have some great lesson plans that can be used with the program. Here are some pros and cons of the site that you might find helpful:


What I liked:

1. Free: With our budget the way they are right now I love the idea of great free tools for teachers!
2. Easy to start: Once you sign up, which is really quick, all you provide is a username, email, and password and you are ready to go.
3. Easy to use: Making the timeline is very simple. You add as much info as you like, it has a place to add text, photos, and links. Once you put the info in it puts it on your timeline. You can work on project a little at a time and come back to it as needed. Once you publish you can still make changes to your line.
4. Easy to access: The timeline you create will be on the site for all to see once it is published and you can access the site anywhere with internet access. Your timeline will also have a ULR that you can send to others to access a specific timeline.

What I did not like:

1. Lack of Privacy: Once the timeline is up it is out for all to see. I have no control over who sees it and who comments on the line. Unlike other sites this one does not let you set up a group to access it is just open to everyone. If you had students make these and comment on others work you cannot control what is posted. This can be problem if an inappropriate comment is made. Also the site is not monitored for inappropriate content by the maker of the site so the bad comments won’t be removed by another party.

2. Cookies: The site relies on cookies for their advertising and it states that these the site will not work properly if the cookies are not able to function. Our computers at school have the cookies deactivated so I am not sure if this will impede the use of this site.



Now Take a look and let us know what you think and how you think you will use it!

Book Club!

As most of you know we have a student book club but what many of you don't know is how the club can help your class!! One way is with books to use in your room. Each year we buy 5 books of each of the f Virginia Reader's Choice and we have a stock pile of old ones. What we would love to do is find out if any of these books can be used for a lesson in your room. A good example of this is last year in Mr. Wills history class his students read differnet historical fiction novels in groups and then presented projects on them. Many of our club members would love to come by your class and let you know why they loved the books what they learned from them and to help encourage your students to read them as well.



What do you think?

A Place to Share!

Welcome to the Taylor Library Blog Spot!


This is the place that teachers can come together to share ideas for the classroom and the school! New topics will be added each week by the librarian for discussion. However the real magic will be when teachers also create pages to share! So, please feel free to add anything that you would like to share with all.

This is quick and easy and gives a chance to see what great things you are doing in your classrooms and around the school. 



To start us off what do you think about our new space?